Trait attribution to a described action as a function of changes in salient information

The relative importance of five information variables in determining the amount of friendliness attributed to a described action was analyzed using a five-way ANOVA. The variables (a) antecedent condition, (b) disposition of the actor, (c) intent of the actor, (d) likely social outcome of the act, and (e) actual social outcome of the act, were given a high friendliness value and a low friendliness value. Thirty-two stories which described the same act, but which systematically differed in background information, were made by combining one of the two values of the five variables in all possible combinations. Senior secondary school girls read the stories and rated the friendliness of the act and the friendliness of the actor on 9-place, unipolar rating scales. Results showed that the intent of the actor contributed the only significant source of variance to the trait attribution to the act. The trait attribution to the actor was significantly influenced by intent, antecedent condition, and disposition.     

Cognitive tuning and receptivity to novel information

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that cognitive tuning would cause receivers to be more receptive to novel than to familiar information, compared to transmitters. The information receptivity of transmitters and receivers was contrasted against a control group. The influence of the source and audience, possible limits on the influence of the tuning set, was also explored. Finally, amount of variance controlled by cognitive tuning, personality variables and information utility were examined.While the results strongly support the prediction that transmitters prefer familiar information, receivers and control group subjects did not significantly differ in preferences for novel information. The anticipated expertise of source or audience had no influence on information receptivity. Among the three sets of variables used, the greatest amount of variance was explained by information utility, followed by cognitive tuning and personality measures, though all three variables controlled a significant amount of variance.     

The perception of interleaved melodies

If the notes of two melodies whose pitch ranges do not overlap are interleaved in time so that successive tones come from the different melodies, the resulting sequence of tones is perceptually divided into groups that correspond to the two melodies. Such “melodic fission” demonstrates perceptual grouping based on pitch alone, and has been used extensively in music.Experiment I showed that the identification of interleaved pairs of familiar melodies is possible if their pitch ranges do not overlap, but difficult otherwise. A short-term recognition-memory paradigm (Expt II) showed that interleaving a “background” melody with an unfamiliar melody interferes with same-different judgments regardless of the separation of their pitch ranges, but that range separation attenuates the interference effect. When pitch ranges overlap, listeners can overcome the interference effect and recognize a familiar target melody if the target is prespecified, thereby permitting them to search actively for it (Expt III). But familiarity or prespecification of the interleaved background melody appears not to reduce its interfering effects on same-different judgments concerning unfamiliar target melodies (Expt IV).     

Acquisition and transfer effects of cued and noncued double alternation schedules with rats

In an attempt to establish patterning, rats were administered eight daily runway trials in a double alternation schedule with distinctive goal events in either a consistent or a varied sequence. Different magnitudes of reward differentiated the reinforced trials, whereas different lengths of confinement in the empty goal box distinguished the nonreinforced trials. During acquisition, rats given the consistent cue sequence “patterned”, whereas the group presented varied cues did not. Subsequently, the Consistent and Varied Cue Groups were subdivided and were administered for 2 days only one of the four acquisition training goal events. During the final 5 days of transfer testing, all subgroups were switched to receiving four daily trials with a second and then a third goal event. In agreement with expectations derived from stimulus aftereffects theory, performance was immediately in accord with the reinforcement contingencies previously established during acquisition training and not the goal event actually presented during testing.     

Affective state and preference for immediate versus delayed reward

Fifty-two 9-year-olds were randomly assigned to success and failure treatment conditions involving acceptance or rejection of a drawing made for an art show. In a pilot study, this treatment was shown to influence significantly subjects' affective states. Just after treatment, subjects were presented with choices between pairs of small immediate and large delayed rewards. As predicted, subjects who had experienced success chose more often the large delayed reward than those who failed (p < .02). Prior expectancy for success and sex were not significantly related to choice behavior. The influence of affective state on various parameters of the choice paradigm was discussed, and other evidence was cited indicating that affective state is a major determinant of self-gratification behavior.     

Summation of food and shock based responding

In a multiphase experiment, dogs first received discriminative, discretetrial, barrier-jumping training with two tones (S^D, S^Δ) in a shuttle box reinforced by either shock avoidance (Group I) or by food (Group II). Then the dogs were trained on free-operant barrier-jumping reinforced by the qualitatively opposite reinforcer—food in Group I and shock avoidance in Group II. Finally, test presentations of the tone stimuli were superimposed on the free-operant behavior. The tone S^Ds markedly facilitated responding in all animals. This experiment demonstrates a summation of responding maintained by shock avoidance and food reinforcement and casts doubt on explanations of conditioned suppression outcomes that appeal solely to incompatible motivational states within the organism.     

An analysis of behavior in the hobbits-orcs problem

Young adults solved a problem in which hobbits and orcs had to be transported across a river. In Expt I, a Part-Whole group of subjects solved the problem starting at a different state in the middle and then were given the entire problem. Comparison with a Control group indicated that the initial practice of the Part-Whole group did not facilitate their later performance on the same problem segment, but did facilitate performance in a different portion of the problem. In Expt II, some subjects were given feedback halfway through the problem that they were on the right track. Results gave some support to the notion that a possible difficulty in the problem is the subject's belief that he must have entered a blind alley in the search space. However, other difficulties were also involved. Inferences from several different dependent performance variables, the transfer results, and subjects' comments consistently suggested that subjects solving this problem needed to undergo a number of cognitive changes (3–4) that was smaller than the minimum number of external moves required to solve the problem (11).